Alessandro Nesta admits he'd like to return to Milan one day as Coach, but considers the current team is not ‘competitive’.

The veteran defender recently debuted in the Indian league for Chennaiyin, against Alessandro Del Piero's Delhi Dynamos.

While it represents the 38-year-old’s return to playing, he is already focused on the next stage of his career, in coaching.

“I'll take a plane back to Italy and I'll finish my study course as a Coach,” Nesta has told today’s Gazzetta dello Sport.

“I'll take the exam in September and then a team, in Italy or in the world.

“Maybe one day I'll end up in Milan, it's still a point of arrival.”

Nesta has frequently noted the differences between Milan in his age and the contemporary Rossoneri and it is something that he has reaffirmed.

“The mercato used to be planned with €100m, while today you have perhaps €5m.

“Now those resources belong to others and we are cut off, without even being able to compete.

“Certain players have a price. You can no longer afford that type of expense, nor a compromise.

“I might have kept [Massimo] Ambrosini another year, to transmit the Milan style, something that you can not explain but only, as I said, transmit.”

Nesta does not reduce the decline of the Rossoneri to the absence of a single player, but believes there were a multiplicity of causes.

“There were other issues too - I could have stayed but I no longer felt competitive to go around marking [Lionel] Messi.

“Then there were the sales of Ibra [Zlatan Ibrahimovic] and Thiago Silva, who were no longer economically sustainable.

“But here we're talking about an Italian problem, not just Milan's.”

Nesta believes the current Milan squad has some quality players, but is weak in the midfield.

“The defence is not so bad, [Adil] Rami and [Philippe] Mexes are good players and so is Alex. [Ignazio] Abate is doing well.

“In the offence, Il Faraone [Stephan El Shaarawy] is excellent, the best talent they have. He just has to learn how to handle emotions.

“[Fernando] Torres on the other hand is rusty, but he can and must unblock himself.

“The limits are in the midfield - there are few alternatives.”

Still, Nesta is not persuaded that this iteration of the Rossoneri matches the one he used to play for.

“The Milan core today is composed of Abate, [Daniele] Bonera, and [Riccardo] Montolivo, who are very good players and very serious people – but we had [Paolo] Maldini.

“Maldini has to come back into football, from any door.

“Then there were [Alessandro] Costacurta, [Rino] Gattuso, [Andriy] Shevchenko – people who played well not once every two games, but always. And the others did everything they could to keep up with their pace.”